There have been many efforts to develop compositions that can be applied to substrates to provide a beneficial protective layer with desirable properties such as one or more of easy cleaning, stain prevention, long lasting performance, antireflection, and the like. Many compositions developed for such applications rely on materials (for example, volatile organic solvents) that can present environmental issues and/or involve complex application processes. Further, problems relating to inadequate shelf-life continue to plague product developers of such compositions.
Accordingly, for many products a tradeoff of attributes is typically struck between the desired performance attributes, environmental friendliness of the materials, satisfactory shelf-life, and ease of use by a relatively unskilled user.
There remains a need for shelf-stable environmentally friendly compositions that can be coated on a substrate (for example, a glass panel) to provide long lasting protection from soil and stain accumulation and an antireflective surface, especially if they can be readily handled by a relatively unskilled user.